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Wednesday, January 25, 2012

"Although the happiest among the elderly seem to tolerate the aches and pains of old age with minimal complaint, they also urge younger people to treat their body as though it must last for a hundred years. That means no smoking, plenty of exercise, and a healthy diet. 'It's not dying you should worry about,' Pillemer said, summarizing the advice of his experts, 'It's chronic disease. What you can expect from not making the right health decisions isn't an early death. Instead you should be concerned about years, possibly decades, of suffering from chronic disease.'*

Who cares? I do. What's new about the comment above? Nothing except that it comes from the wisdom of experts in the field of old as they look back and ahead. The article doesn't in fact say anything about negative self-talk, but readers of this blog know that the NST habit has consequences similar to the fried ice cream with a side of mashed potato habit and the butt generally on a couch, chair and/or bed habit.

Negative self-talk and it's escalation, rumination, can culminate over time in chronic anxiety and depression. And the negative self-talk habit also contributes mightily to the unhealthy eating and the no exercise habit. Breaking the NST habit seems the best starting point for a domino effect. I'm thinking in this stream of consciousness of creating an online 8-12 session class about breaking the NST habit. Not quite sure how or what. Video? Interactive? Traditional? I need to work on this idea. Suggestions? Please comment if you have an idea of what would work best.

I don't know any really good books on the topic to recommend while I patiently wait to get my book Handbook#1 for Intelligent Women — Break the Negative Self-Talk Habit published. Do you have a recommendation or two? Please let us know if you've found some helpful resource that's available to all.

WELCOME TO IWO!

It's the beginning of the third year of intelligentwomenonly.com I've started off with some retrospective posts as a reminder to me and you that this blog started out focused on understanding and eliminating negative self-talk. Not surprising since my current book project is Handbook #l for Intelligent Women: Break the Negative Self-Talk Habit.Strong beliefs underlie intelligentwomenonly.com posts:• Research based advice/suggestions/content contain more accurate facts and greater value than pop psychology.• Intelligent girls and women are more likely than intelligent boys and men to limit themselves because of their self-talk.• Negative self-talk is a bad habit, not a neurosis or psychosis. Unfortunately, it's normal in a majority of girls and women.

•The negative self-talk habit has to be eliminated before realistic (or positive thinking) can be learned and maintained.• Positive self-talk cannot create a positive reality even if the negative self-talk habit is broken.• Self-help approaches can work for changing thinking, feeling, and behavioral habits.In the next nine months of 2012, I would love to be able to tell you that the book will be published this year or next. In the meantime I've become intrigued with new brain research about thinking and emotions, particularly applicable and useful for and to women. I'll post no more about gender differences, unless they're wildly interesting, and more about intelligent women's psychology, thinking, feelings, and out front actions. I've added a new red subject box, Writers and Writing, targeted specifically for writers, of course!

I'm still looking for some controversy, disagreement, new information from readers. I'm open to your thoughts about what you'd like to hear more about — or less about!Please send me your comments, suggestions, questions, criticisms — all of you intelligent women out there!